THE PROLOGUE
OUTLINE
41
IN
The Life was the Light of Men (1:4)
The majestic simplicity of the opening verse called for worship
rather than further scrutiny, and we therefore proceed, without
attempting to explain that which lies outside our sphere. Whatever
may be the name under which He is revealed, God must always be
made known to us relatively. We must always remember that the
words used are symbols and not the realities themselves. The great
object of the Scriptures is not to make us theologians (though the day
is coming when we shall `know even as we are known'), but to teach
us our own need and God's provision for it, in view of the future day
of glory. We believe the statements of the first verse without reserve,
but this does not mean that we have comprehended the mystery of the
Godhead. If John had been inspired to devote several chapters to the
exposition of this opening verse, we should have been delighted to
follow in his steps, but he has not done so. He leads us from the height
of uncreated glory in verse 1 to the `glory as of the only begotten of the
Father' in verse 14, and then he travels back again in the closing verse
of the prologue, where the introduction of the title `Father' seems to
supply the missing feature that we were perhaps unconsciously waiting
for as we read the opening statement.
After the introductory reference to the Person of the Creator, John
moves on in verse 3 to His work: `All things were made by Him'.
Then, by a beautiful transition, he suggests that what `life' is to the
physical creation, `light' must be in the new creation; and so we reach
the central point of the prologue (10-13), where some `received Him
not', and some `received Him'. The narrative then commences its
return ascent, placing the new creation of verse 17 over against the
material creation of verse 3, and so back to the starting-point, the
declaring of God by Him Who in the beginning was the Word, and
Who since the incarnation, has been made known as `the Son'. We
shall look in vain in the unfolding revelation of this Gospel, for any
further explanation of the title `The Word', and we shall learn nothing
further concerning the physical creation of `all things'. Instead, we
shall be led step by step from one sign to another, to the great objective
of the Gospel, that we might believe that `Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God, and that believing we might have life through His name'. We
are led, in effect, from the contemplation of Him, in Whom our
physical life is found, to Him in Whom alone we may find that life
which is age-abiding.